Note 214 — THE LOVES OF AL-HAYFA AND YUSUF.[177]

This “diapedesis” of bloodstained tears is frequently mentioned in The Nights; and the “Bloody Sweat” is well-known by name. The disease is rare and few have seen it, whilst it has a certain quasi-supernatural sound from the “Agony and bloody sweat” in the Garden of Gethsemane. But the exudation of blood from the skin was described by Theophrastus and Aristotle and lastly by Lucan in these lines:—

——Sic omnia membra

Emisere simul rutilum pro sanguine virus.

Sanguis erant lachrymæ, etc.

Of Charles IX. of France Mezaray declares “Le sang lui rejaillait par les pores et tous les conduits de son corps,” but the superstitious Protestant holds this to be a “judgment.” The same historian also mentions the phenomenon in a governor condemned to die; and Lombard in the case of a general after losing a battle and a nun seized by banditti—blood oozed from every pore. See Dr. Millingen’s “Curiosities of Medical Experience,” p. 485, London, Bentley, 1839.